Fluke bounce and toothless
power play cost SharksNo call on Getzlaf pick helps
game winner

2/4/13 - By Mike Lee -

January's perfect record has been inverted so far
in February, as the Sharks dropped their second straight game of the season on
Monday night. San Jose didn't deserve to lose, but they didn't put the host
Anaheim Ducks away when they had their chances, and ended up dropping a 2-1
decision for their first regulation loss of the season. Anaheim took advantage
of a fluke bounce and a missed call to generate their offense, stealing two
points from the Pacific Division leading Sharks.

The big hole in San
Jose's game came on the power play, where the team missed on 6 chances to
score. What made matters worse was that San Jose couldn't crack Anaheim's 65.3%
penalty kill efficiency, which ranked 29th in the league entering the game. San
Jose's 5th ranked power play did little to generate any legitimate scoring
chances.

As the rest of the league has acclimated themselves to the
pace of the game, the Sharks have found it harder to generate any scoring. San
Jose has scored two or fewer goals in four straight games.

Skating
5-on-5, San Jose has seemingly stopped sending bodies to the front of the net.
The Sharks offensive woes can be attributed to a lack of activity in front of
the net, which worked to Ducks rookie goaltender Viktor Fasth's advantage.
Fasth saw the puck well all night, snuffing out everything the Sharks threw at
him from distance.

The lone Sharks goal came courtesy of Logan
Couture, who gathered a rebound in front of Fasth, then worked around the
netminder to jam home his 6th tally of the season. Andrew Desjardins earned the
primary assist by throwing the puck on net before Couture worked his magic with
the rebound.

Thomas Greiss was cruising along, extending his shutout
streak to 5 periods. Defenseman Jason Demers helped extend that streak by
making a spectacular play on what should have been a sure goal for the Ducks
Andrew Cogliano with 7:30 left in the 2nd period. Cogliano found a deflection
at the top of the Sharks crease, then tried pushing a shot home as he slid
toward the left post. Demers dove with his stick extended, blocking the shot
with his stick blade to help preserve the Sharks one-goal lead.

Greiss
made a big save on Brayan Allen three minutes into the 3rd period after the
Ducks forward raced around the right end and cut in on net. Greiss' luck ran
out after that save.

The Sharks had control of the puck in their end
when Tommy Wingels tried to wind the puck around the end boards. The puck hit a
seem in the dasher board and kicked out to the front of the goal, where Saku
Koivu deposited it for the easy goal. Greiss assumed the puck was traveling to
the right corner and had his back to it as it caromed out to Koivu.

Martin Havlat missed on a nice backhand chance after working the puck from
behind the Ducks net later in the period, bust Fasth gloved the shot. That was
followed shortly thereafter by a Marc-Edouard Vlasic blast that Fasth gloved to
keep the game tied.

The one bright spot for San Jose was their penalty
kill, which matched the Ducks by killing 6 power plays of their own. San Jose
put itself into a precarious position later in the period. Michal Handzus was
sent off for hooking, then Joe Pavelski took a delay of game penalty for
throwing the puck over the glass. Pavelski's penalty was curious, because a
linesman called a deflection off a Duck's stick on the play, but referee Tom
Kowal overruled it, sending Pavelski to the penalty box.

San Jose
killed off the 5-on-3, then almost turned things around when Patrick Marleau
chipped the puck forward and found himself on a breakaway. Fasth rejected
Marleau with a well-timed poke-check to extinguish the scoring chance.

Ryan Getzlaf generated the Ducks second goal of the evening by throwing a pick
in the offensive zone which went uncalled by Kowal and his posse of striped
incompetents. Sheldon Souray pumped a shot from the top of the left circle that
Scott Gomez then partially deflected to beat Greiss for the 2-1 Ducks lead.

Allen leveled Couture with a cross check with 3:24 to play, but the
Sharks power play could only muster a single shot on goal. Fasth finished the
evening with a paltry 25 saves, but escaped with the victory.

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